This invention relates to the recycling of construction waste materials and, more particularly, to a computer system by which the parties involved in such waste material recycling can submit and receive required recycling plans, track and document their activities, and create and submit any necessary reports, among other operations in an integrated fashion.
There is an increasing demand for waste management and reuse of materials by contractors as well as other related businesses entities due to the growing demand for green building and the overall green movement. Increasingly, new ordinances are being established by state and local governments which include banning construction and debris material waste from landfills. This movement by the state and local governments, along with their efforts to increase diversion and recycling rates, has placed more pressure on contractors and other business entities to adopt sustainable construction waste management practices.
A practice in the construction industry has been the simple dumping of material removed from a building site in dumps and landfill. Especially at sites with preexisting structures, there are materials which might be reused, removed, diverted, and recycled, rather being simply disposed. However, many disposal or dump sites are nearing capacity, and today environmental considerations have come into play. Government bodies have begun to issue regulations with recycling programs so that construction materials cannot be simply removed and dumped. A certain portion of construction waste must be diverted from simple disposal, i.e., a portion of the waste might be required to be reused or recycled. Only if reuse or recycling is not feasible, then the waste can be disposed of.
With the adoption of regulations and waste diversion programs, the resulting waste diversion efforts must typically be monitored and documented. Of course, these requirements impose burdens for everyone involved. For the government bodies, regulations must be issued and published, the necessary permits for waste diversion projects must be reviewed for approval, the waste diversion operations must be monitored to ensure compliance, and data and statistics must be gathered and reports in support of recycling program.
For the contractors, the forms for a waste diversion project for a particular jurisdiction must be properly completed out and filed, the required approvals for the project must be obtained, the compliance to regulations must be monitored during the project, including the creation of project records, the maintenance of these compliance records, and so on.
For the recycling facilities which receive the waste diversion materials, government approval to secure waste diversion business must be sought, the existence of waste diversion facilities must be available to the contractors, and the waste diversion operations at the facilities must be monitored and documented. For the managers and owners of the properties under construction projects, it would be desirable that status of the projects from planning, through construction to completion, be available.
From amount of effort and documentation described, it is readily evident that there is a need to manage waste diversion activities and operations in an integrated manner. In order to establish the new standards and guidelines for contractors, recyclers, other business entities and government agencies a widely recognizable reporting system is needed. Communications between the involved parties are coordinated and the various waste diversion operations are tracked, recorded and the necessary documentation maintained. Resulting data from the operations are also recorded for the easy generation of reports to the necessary parties. The present invention provides for such a solution.